


The Promise We Made to Each Other

by TheWolvenStorm



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Casual Mention of Sex Work, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nicodranas, Spoilers through 124
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29349747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWolvenStorm/pseuds/TheWolvenStorm
Summary: After they arrive in Nicodranas, Jester asks Fjord to help her break the news to her mother about the five years stolen from her in Eiselcross.---"Tension leaves his body with each exhale. Sucking in sea salt air, the sounds of the harbor, the residual heat of the day reflecting off the stones. Home. They made it home. Even if it's only for a few hours. Even if it's only for a night.But Jessie doesn’t relax, in fact as they get closer to the Lavish Chateau her grip on his hand gets tighter. Before she stops entirely at the street corner, under the lamp glow of one of the terraces.“What’s the matter?”
Relationships: Fjord/Jester Lavorre
Comments: 5
Kudos: 130





	The Promise We Made to Each Other

She holds his hand as they meander through the streets of Nicodranas. Fingers interlocked, woven together as they work their way through the crowded market stalls. It had been late when they left Eiselcross and jumped to Yussa’s tower. But it was only sunset on the coast. The sun painting the sky in pinks and reds touched with gold. 

The Nein had split after they explained their situation to Yussa. Caleb and Beau were deep in conversation with the arch mage. Discussing tactics, the calamity, possible sources of Lucien’s power. Yasha had lingered there too, hesitant to leave Beau’s side. Veth had gone to her family, leaving even before they had met with Yussa. And Cad had gone to the lighthouse to commune and meditate with their goddess. 

And Jester had wanted to see her mom. And Fjord had wanted to be with Jester. 

Tension leaves his body with each exhale. Sucking in sea salt air, the sounds of the harbor, the residual heat of the day reflecting off the stones. Home. They made it home. Even if it's only for a few hours. Even if it's only for a night. 

But Jessie doesn’t relax, in fact as they get closer to the Lavish Chateau her grip on his hand gets tighter. Before she stops entirely at the street corner, under the lamp glow of one of the terraces. 

“What’s the matter?” 

She doesn’t answer, only gathers up her tail and winds it around her hand. Her face twisted and taut. A fang biting into her lower lip. Violet eyes unsure and sad. 

Saying what’s really on her mind has always been hard for Jester. She’s a people pleaser, deeply empathetic, and has a hard time telling him how she really feels. But in the time they’ve been together, he’s learned how to bring it out of her. Some coaxing, some comfort. Reassurance. Respect. 

He takes a step toward her and cups her cheek. 

“Tell me what’s wrong, Jess.” 

She nuzzles into his palm. Almost hiding in it as she takes a deep breath. 

“I don’t want to freak out my momma.” Jester confesses, tracing her horn, focusing on the few new inches that curl back around towards her ears. “She’s going to be so sad and so scared. I don’t want-” She gives up trying to find words and her face falls.

And there aren’t any words for him to give her either. So he gives her what he can. Pulls her in for a hug. Let her lean against him, let's bury her face in chest. 

In his head, he knows it was all chance. Those statues were just another cluster of ruins, like the hundreds of others scattered over Eiselcross. She’d gone because of a game of boulder, parchment, shears. Chance upon chance upon chance. 

But his heart tells him he should have stopped her. Should have gone in her place. Should have listened to Dagen when he told them to not investigate every curious thing they found. Tells him that he promised Marion he’d keep her safe. A promise to a mother that he holds just a sacred as the one he swore Melora. 

“I want to see her.” Jester lifts her head and meets his eyes. “I know it sounds stupid but, I just want my momma.” 

“That’s not stupid, Jessie.” 

“She feels so guilty all the time. I didn’t go outside because she didn’t. I didn’t leave until I had to because I didn’t want her to be alone. She blames herself. And… I just…” She squeezes him, laying her head back against him. “I don’t want her to feel worse.” 

He strokes her hair, glaring at passersby who spend too much time staring at them.

“It’s not a bad thing, you know? For your mom to be sad about this. It’s natural. I mean...what happened, was obviously not natural. But it's natural for her to worry about you. To feel sad when you get hurt. To grieve-” he chokes for a second, taking a deep breath to swallow down the feeling that hits too close to his heart. “To grieve for the time lost.” 

Jester nods against his chest. 

“You have to allow her to feel what she feels. But neither you nor her have anything to feel guilty about. Especially about this.” he traces one of her horns, his fingers jostling the delicate chains. Making their charms chime and clink. Small notes to a sad song. 

“Could you-” she looks up quickly, and then shies away. “Never mind.” 

“Hey,” drawing her hands up in his. “I’m here for you. If you need something, just ask.” 

She smiles a bit, a faint flush coloring her neck and cheek. “Could you go in first?” asking cautiously. “Tell her what happened, so that she isn’t  _ so  _ shocked when she sees me. Give her a minute to… get ready for it.” 

“Of course, Jessie.” He pulls her in again. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever you need.”

“Thank you, Fjord,” popping up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, before sliding her arm around his elbow and walking with him. 

The Chateau always shocks him a little. The opulence of the ballroom, the wealth of clientele. For an orphan who spent his scrounging for every coin and signing on with the first ship that would take him, it's always a little jarring. Always a little discomfiting. There’s always a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he doesn’t belong in place like this. 

But he belongs at Jester’s side. 

A pair of elven singers croon softly to each other in a nearly empty ballroom. A handful of patrons scattered around a handful of tables. Silently sipping fine wine and chewing rich foods as the duo slips between their mother tongue and common in a harmonious tangle of love songs. 

There’s a part of him that imagines taking Jester’s hand and spinning her. Bringing her close. Swaying to the melody with her in his arms. He’s never been a dancer. But he knows she’d smile and blush and giggle in that special way that does stupid things to his heart. 

But it's not the time. When this is all over, when they aren’t being threatened by the re- _ re _ incarnation of their dead friend. When the rest of the nien aren’t around to watch. When they have a moment of just them to rest and be. 

Jessie slips up the staircase that curls behind the stage with quiet and practiced ease. The result of a childhood spent staying out of sight. He can’t imagine her like that. Restrained and repressed. Until an archfey taught her joy… and chaos.

She quickly turns and motions for him to skip a noisy step while the performance is going on. And he nods and stretches over it, earning a thumbs up and a grin from Jester. 

They manage to make it up to the third story without interrupting the performers. And once there, the minotaur greets them with a small grunt. 

“Hi Bluud, Is momma working? Im sorry, I forgot to message.” 

The bull shakes his head, “Not till later, she’s free now.” 

“Ooookie Doohkie!” she answers, Long and dramatic in the way she is when she’s pushing some unpleasant feeling down. And hesitantly enters the suite she grew up in. Still holding his hand. Still squeezing tight. 

He squeezes it back, bringing her hand up to his lips for a small kiss. “It's gonna be okay, Jess.” 

“Okay.” she sighs, letting out a long exhale, before some of her chaos bubbles up to cover her anxiety “I’ll just be…” she clucks her tongue and motions to her bedroom door. “In here. Waiting.” 

“I’ll come get you.” 

“Thank you again, Fjord.” her hand slipping from his, her steps hesitant and unsure as she glances over her shoulder before ducking away into her room. 

It takes a moment to gather the courage to knock on the Ruby’s door. To find the will to tell her that he couldn’t keep his promise. To tell a mother that he couldn’t keep her daughter safe. To tell Marion that Jester has lost five years. 

_ Five years.  _

Jessie struggles with it. It's in the way she lingers at her own reflection in the stained glass of the tower, and the way she pouts when her longer horns catch on her clothing. The way she fiddled with her jewelry as they stomped around Eiselcross. It’s another thing she buries inside herself. Another thing he only knows because he watches. 

With a deep breath, he knocks. 

Hello?” 

“Ms. Lavorre, its Fjord, from the Mighty Nien. Jester’s-” he stutters for a moment. Jester’s what?  _ Boyfriend _ ? Can he use that yet? Gods they need to talk. They need to rest. Find some time for each other. “-Friend.” 

“Just a moment,” Marion sings sweetly. 

He takes off his hat, twisting it in his hands. It’s a gift that Marion gave him. A beautiful gift. A memory of a wonderful night. Jester in her pink ball gown, flushed and happy as she spun in circles. Letting the layers lift in the sea breeze.

“Hello Captain Tusktooth,” Marion laughs as she opens the door. A bright smile on her face. Her hair pinned up in rollers, and a heavily embroidered robe wrapped tightly around her. “Pardon my undress, I have a client in a few hours. Is Jester here?” She looks around him, but upon not seeing her daughter, her face falls. Worry painted across her face. “Is she well?

“She’s here and she’s fine,” he answers. “But, uh, perhaps you should sit down.” 

“Is she playing a prank on me?” Marion whispers, fangs bared with her broad smile. 

“‘Fraid not Ma’am.” his voice slipping back into Vandren in his anxiety. But he swallows it down as the Ruby looks confused and gestures for him to join her inside. 

She takes a seat at her vanity, a chaotic table filled with dozens of small jars of every imaginable color. Powders and oils and inks of all kinds. Marion crosses her legs, delicate and ladylike and looks to him expectantly. 

Gods Jester looks like her mother. He can see it in the sharp edge of her jaw and curl of her smile. In the cut of her cheekbones and the color of her eyes. And his heart thuds as the fleeting image of Jester in twenty years through his head. Long spiraling horns and laugh lines framing her smile. 

“Um, I don’t know what Jester told you about what we’ve been doing recently.” 

The Ruby of the Sea doesn’t answer, only gestures for him to continue. “We got hired by some empire folk to head up to Eiselcross. Help their mages excavate the ruins.” It’s non-specific enough. No-one outside of the Tombtakers, the Nien, and Essek know Vess DeRogna is dead. It wouldn’t help anyone for Marion to know  _ that  _ specific detail. “I won’t get into the weeds but there’s some weird magic up there.” 

Marion’s brows furrow together, as she tries to predict what he’s going to say. Fear deepening the delicate lines of her face. 

“We found these-” he pauses, searching for a word. “-Ruins, statues that gave off a magical aura. And when we were investigating…” 

How in Exandria does he begin to explain what happened? One minute they were laughing and doing dumb poses in a circle around the statue. Launching fireballs and playing boulder, parchment, shears. And the next she was frozen on a pedestal. And the next she was sputtering and coughing and aging as he watched in mute horror. 

It suddenly feels cold and distant for him to be standing, so he takes a knee next to Marion’s vanity. Placing himself lower than her eye level as he explains. 

“-The statues or whatever was inside them, started talking to her. And from what she said... she felt there was no way to escape. She couldn’t...communicate with any of us nearby. And they told her that they would answer her questions, if they could take something in return.” 

Marion’s hands fly over her mouth in a gasp. Violet eyes open and afraid. So much like Jester’s were in the minutes after she fell. 

“What did they take?” she asks, voice trembling. “What did they do to my sapphire?” 

“They took time.” he answers, looking down at the hat twisted in his hands. “They took time away from her.” 

Marion immediately stands and begins pacing the room, fanning her face in a feeble attempt to dry tears as they begin to fall. Walking back and forth between the broad balcony windows, and her bed in short stilted steps. The fading sun painting the sky in violets, the same shades of Jessie’s eyes. 

“How much time?” Marion snaps. “How much time did these things take from my…” her fist flails limply and she slumps back into her chair, burying her face into her hands. 

“We don’t know for sure. Our best guess is four-five years.” 

“Five years…” Her mouth forms the shapes of the words, but no sound comes out. “Five years.” 

Silence fills the space between them. The weight of time settling heavily on their minds.

“She asked me to tell you first. So you wouldn’t-” he stutters, trying to find a better way to word it than Jester had. 

“-Freak out” Marion finishes for him.

“Yea.” he nods. 

Marion takes a deep breath and pulls a handkerchief from the vanity. Blotting her eyes and wiping away smears of black ink from her lashes. 

“Just... Were you with her? When it happened? After?” 

“Yes Ma’am.” 

“That’s good,” she offers a weak smile as she folds the handkerchief into a point to better rid herself of the black smudges under her eyes. “I know how much Jester cares for you. And how much you care for her.” 

There’s a pinprick in his chest. A sharp sense of vulnerability, like his heart had been plucked out and all its secrets revealed. 

“It brings me some comfort to know that she didn’t have to face it alone.” 

“I love her.” The confession tumbles out, almost entirely against his own will. He shocks still and looks up at Marion, who only smiles fondly and pats his cheek. 

“I know.” 

He opens his mouth again to speak, but closes it before some other truth decides to spill out. And just nods as he awkwardly shuffles to his feet. 

“I’ll go get her, so you two can have some time.” 

“One moment,” Marion stands after him and wraps her arms around him in a tight hug. At first, its uncomfortable. But as the seconds tick by, a tightly coiled thing at the core of his soul begins to unwind, and he falls deeper into a mother’s embrace. 

He never knew his mother. It was something that used to bother him when he was a kid. But there were lots of orphans during that time. After the dragons attacked the world. Whoever his mother was, she was another victim of the tens of thousands of others who fell. The world was full of powerful beings and powerful magics. And what happened to him, happened to many others. 

A few tears fall, whether its from his own grief at Jester’s lost time, the collective stress of all they’ve been through these past weeks with Lucien, or the fact that this mother’s love squeezes him tight and safe, he doesn’t know. 

Marion pulls back, and wipes her thumb under his eye. “Your secret is safe with me. But you should tell her. If we’ve learned anything from this, it's that our time is short.” 

“Yes Ma’am.” he answers, replacing his hat. 

“I’m going to cancel my client, if you’ll go get-” 

“-Course.” 

She’s in her room. Laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling above her bed. At the art she drew when she was a girl. Her tail swishing low and lazy as he lays beside her. 

“How did it go?” she asks in a meek voice. Rolling into his side as he wraps an arm around her. 

“As well as it could, I suppose. She’s not…” he scrunches his nose. “Your mother is very strong. Just like you.” Jester snorts and curls against him a little tighter. “She’s canceling her appointment for this evening. I figure I’ll go out and get some supplies to make up for what the Tomb Takers stole, so you two have some time.” 

“You don’t need to leave, Fjord.” 

He shakes his head. “We need potions and more climbing gear. You heard Essek, there are miles of ruins up there. And Caleb needs more paper because all of his was in the amber. And we need another diamond to replace the one we used. We’re leaving to get Essek’s brother in Bazzoxan tomorrow. I don’t know when there will be another good chance to stock up. I’ll be back in an hour or two, which should give you some real time with your mom before the rest of Nein come in.” 

She sighs and nestles her head into the crook of his shoulder. “I wanted to spend some real time with you too.” 

He mirrors the sigh and squeezes her close. Pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

“I did too.” 

“Maybe later, we can sneak out to the beach.” Conspiracy and mischief lacing her voice. 

“I’d like that.” 

Jester smiles and pecks his lips before rolling out of the bed. Tugging her dress straight. Checking her horns and hair. 

“I have some money in my bag. It’s not a lot after what we paid Dagen, but-” she shrugs instead of finishing the thought. 

“Every bit helps.” 

“Exactly.” Jess stands at her doorway, pausing and turning back one last time. “Thank you Fjord. For helping me. And momma. She likes you alot. You know?” 

“Anytime, Jessie.” 

She blows him a kiss, winking as he catches it for her. Tucking it in his pocket before he sits up to gather the coin for supplies. 

He takes a minute for himself in Jester’s childhood room. Examining the fairy stories and romance novels on her bookshelf. The stuffed unicorns on her bed. The hidden dicks scattered throughout the murals on the walls. The art that progresses from childlike doodles to beautiful seascapes. Trying to take in the pieces of her he hasn’t found yet.

There’s a glimpse of Jester’s tail swishing happily and excited through the few open inches of Marion’s door. The two women wrapped up in each others arms. Jester babbling excitedly.

Marion looks at him through the crack in the door, swaying her sapphire back and forth. A silent ‘thank you’ mouthed behind Jester’s back. He smiles and tips his hat. 

“Oh I haven’t even told you the best thing yet!” 

“Yes, my sapphire?” 

“Fjord kissed me!” she squeals, a giddy bouncing noise. 

“Is that so…” Marion tosses a look to him, a wicked grin spreading across her face. 

“He was all like...” He escapes quickly as Jester recounts that night. Their kiss. Her voice growing deep as she mimics his. But he can’t escape the flush growing up his cheek, or the snort of derision he gets from Bluud as he leaves the suite. Or the growing sense of place that settles into his soul. 

**Author's Note:**

> The Title of the Work is from Friends At the Table - Twilight Mirage #53 - Our Faults in A Vacuum, or the Promise We Made to Each Other. 
> 
> Beep Boop Beep  
> I am only pretending to be a robot.  
> I am a person, who gets huge shots of serotonin when you leave kudos and comments.  
> Please get me high. 
> 
> Sleeper Agent, your Mission ID is Donut-Scorpio-Oxblood.  
> See you at the Rendevous.


End file.
